COAI argued that that such a regulation may pose a potential challenge to the ‘fundamental rights’ of an ordinary subscriber. There could be a situation where a customer has exhausted the limit and suddenly some emergency occurs. Due to this artificial restriction, safety of the subscriber may be jeopardised

New Delhi: Telecom operators’ lobby COAI has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to reconsider its recommendation to limit 100 SMSes per day per SIM, saying that such a regulation may pose a potential challenge to the ‘fundamental rights’ of an ordinary subscriber, reports PTI.

To stop the menace of pesky SMSes, telecom regulator TRAI had asked telecom operators to limit the number of short message services from 27th September.

There are several instances where SMSes are an important mode of communication. There could be a situation where a customer has exhausted the limit and suddenly some emergency occurs. Due to this artificial restriction, safety of the subscriber may be jeopardised, COAI director general Rajan S Mathews said in a letter to the TRAI.

TRAI had said that no access provider shall permit sending of more than one hundred SMSes per day per SIM.

While in the case of post-paid, it had restricted the number of SMSes to 3,000 per month per SIM.

In case a customer wants to use more than the prescribed limit of 100 SMSes a day, the access provider shall obtain an undertaking from such subscribers that the said telephone number shall not be used for sending any commercial communications.

Further, regarding allocating separate series ‘140’ for the telemarketing through the fixed line services, the letter added that the new number will pose challenge to service providers.

The identification of the calling party will be difficult and the service providers will not be able to reconcile their IUC invoices. This will lead to inter-operator IUC disputes as BSNL may claim highest carriage charges of 65 paise as terminating charge, he added.

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IMF in its World Economic Outlook said that controlling inflation continues to remain a major challenge for India and added that despite a series of rate hikes by the RBI, credit growth still remains strong

“In India, growth is forecast to average 7.5% to 7.75% during 2011-12. Activity is expected to be led by private consumption,” IMF said in its World Economic Outlook.

The report was released ahead of the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank which, among others, will be attended by Indian finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Investment, according to the Outlook, “is expected to remain sluggish, reflecting, in part, recent corporate sector governance issues and a drag from the renewed global uncertainty and less favourable external financing environment”.

IMF said that controlling inflation continues to remain a major challenge for India and added that despite a series of rate hikes by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), credit growth still remains strong.

Inflation has risen to 9.78% in August, much higher than the RBI’s comfort zone of 5%-6%. In its bid to tame inflation, RBI has hiked key interest rates 12 times since March 2010 by 350 basis points.

RBI and the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council expect the country to expand by 8% in the current fiscal ending March 2012.

IMF said the emerging economies have borne the brunt of the global economic crisis and China’s GDP growth would average 9%-9.5% in 2011-12. This would mainly be on account of policy tightening.

“Investment growth has decelerated with the unwinding of the fiscal stimulus, but it remains the principal contributor to growth,” the World Economic Outlook said.

It said that economic activity in Asia remained solid but moderated somewhat in the first half of 2011 because of the temporary disruption in supply chains from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, especially in the automotive and electronics sectors.

Some economies in emerging Asia also experienced a slowdown in exports, growth in credit and asset prices in the first half of the year, firm consumer and business sentiment, and strong labour markets, IMF said.

It said that capital flows were sizable until recently, although more volatile in 2011. Also, activity in advanced Asia bounced back fairly strongly after the initial setback caused by the natural disasters.

However, it said that the recent debt crisis in the US and the euro zone could impact the economic growth of Asia.

“The recent volatility in US and euro area financial markets rippled through many Asian equity markets, which if sustained could affect the region’s future economic prospects,” the IMF report said.

It projected Asia’s growth to decelerate but remain strong and self-sustained, assuming that the global financial tensions do not escalate.

“For emerging Asia, although the slowdown in the United States and Euro area will dampen external demand, domestic demand is expected to continue supporting growth,” IMF said.

In advanced Asia, activity will be boosted by reconstruction investment, it added.

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IRDA clarified that policies which continue to provide insurance cover to clients after the end of premium payment (auto cover policies) would be included while computing the persistency ratio

New Delhi: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) on Tuesday relaxed norms for insurance agents by removing certain riders at pegging the persistency ratio, which refers to retention of clients, at 50%, reports PTI.

“The average persistency rate is uniformly set as 50% which is to be reckoned only on number of policies,” IRDA said in a circular.

In February, the IRDA had pegged the persistency ratio, a measure of customer satisfaction, at 50% with a rider that it should go up to 75% by 2015-16.

IRDA also clarified that policies which continue to provide insurance cover to clients after the end of premium payment (auto cover policies) would be included while computing the persistency ratio.

However, it added, the policies, which have already matured or wherein death or surrender has happened, would be exempted from calculating persistency ratio for the agent.

IRDA also relaxed the definition of ‘relatives’ that employees of both life and general insurance companies cannot engage as agents.

“The term relatives is re-defined as spouse, dependent children or dependent step children whether residing with the employee or not,” IRDA circular said.

In its earlier circular, IRDA had said that relative would include spouse, sisters, brothers, parents, sons, daughters-in-law, daughters and sons-in-law.

The circular also said that for transfer of insurance agency from one life insurer to another, the agent should mandatorily have a persistency ratio of 50%.